Suffolk Chess

Last Saturday, we reported on the new Under 11 Team Manager, Boby Sebastian.   Today we have received details of the 2014 Inter-Association Championship.

The Under 11 Zonal will be held on Saturday 15 March.   Suffolk will compete in the East Zone, alongside teams from Barnet, Cambridgeshire, Essex, Hertfordshire, Kent, Leicestershire, Northamptonshire and Richmond.   The venue is Chingford Foundation School, E4 7LT.   It's about an hour and a half's drive from Ipswich, and an hour and a quarter from Bury St Edmunds.

As last year, Norfolk have not entered, which means we can co-opt some of their players.   We will be in contact with the junior organisers in Norwich.

Half of last year's 20-board team will be available for selection, led probably by Anita Somton (Board 4 last year) and Mario Saenz de Villaverde (Board 5 last year).   It is hoped to be able to hold a Training/Selection Day in February before half-term, either in Bury St Edmunds or Woodbridge.   More details soon!

Thanks to Michael Clapham for providing the following two gems - and for being prepared to provide examples of games he lost so swiftly!

The first is from Hastings 2002, with Michael (144) as Black against Mark Daniells (156):

The next is from a County match in 2006, when Michael (151) had the Black pieces against Norfolk's Jeff Dawson (152):

Perhaps Michael has now been persuaded to stop playing the Scandinavian...

Today the Suffolk Under 160 team lost both their matches.   In the morning, against Hertfordshire, Suffolk were a player short because one player was ill.   So, starting with a 0 - 1 deficit, things went from bad to worse.   With just two games remaining, Herts led 10 - 4.   But excellent finishes by Phil Hutchings on Board 4 and John Feavyour on top board, helped to make the final 6 - 10 result a little more respectable.

This photo was taken just before the start of the second match

Hopes were high for the afternoon match, where Suffolk outgraded Norfolk by an average of five grading points per board.   But again, things went badly for Suffolk, and with just one game remaining (mine!) the scores were tied at 7½ - 7½.   Despite being a hard-earned pawn ahead, it proved too difficult to keep my king protected and I eventually succumbed to hand Norfolk the win by 8½ - 7½.

Congratulations are due to Phil Hutchings, the only Suffolk player to win both games.   On 1½ points were Andrew Shephard and Vivian Woodward.   Many thanks to Anita Somton for turning up for the afternoon match - and winning!

To see the full results on Dave Wild's website, click here.

I'm pleased to report that Suffolk has a new Manager for the Under 11 Team.   He is Boby Sebastian, father of 10-year old Alan John, who attends the Bury Knights Junior Club.   Boby replaces Laura Cortabarria, who did such an excellent job last year when the Under 11s travelled to Northampton for the first time in several years, to participate in the National inter-County competition, as reported here.

The Under 11 Zonals take place in 2014 on 15 March, in Essex.   That will be a much easier venue for our team to get to.

It's hoped that as many Suffolk Under 11s as possible will play in the Bury St Edmunds Junior Congress taking place three weeks beforehand, on 23 February.   That will give Boby an opportunity to spot any latecomers and to decide on board order for the 20-board team.   It's likely that at least half the team will be found from the Bury Knights, with The Abbey, Woodbridge, providing several others.   Other possible sources include primary and middle schools in Needham Market, Creeting St Mary, Debenham and East Bergholt, as well as several in Ipswich.   Teachers and/or chess organisers in these schools should contact Boby with suggestions for the squad.   We are allowed to take up to four reserves, who are able to play in a separate tournament.

Anyone wishing to contact Boby directly should him.

From Colin Roberts, President, Suffolk County Chess Association:

On 29th September 2012, a new website was launched dealing with all aspects of Suffolk Chess.   The editor of this site, Bob Jones, has long been known in the East Anglian chess world for his innovative ideas that have improved the Suffolk chess scene for many years.

The Suffolk Chess website today celebrates its 300th entry and there has been something new every day since the start of the current season on 1st September.   I am honoured that Bob has asked me to mark this occasion with a few words.   Of course, keeping a site so consistently fresh on a virtually daily basis is not an easy task and I know that Bob would welcome more contributions from players of all abilities, whether it be interesting games, news from clubs or just local stories with a chess interest.   Bob first asked me to write something around the time of the 100th new entry on the website, so my response time has not been exactly spectacular, but even so, I believe that we should all try to support this site, not only by following it regularly, but also sending in contributions.

On the whole, it has to be said, chess players are not the best when it comes to putting back something into the sport that gives them so much pleasure.   Chess is a cheap game to play and I don't know of any other sport that, at the local level, offers the opportunity to win such decent prize money as chess tournaments do.   There are plenty of opportunities to play chess, in club competitions in the evenings and at County and tournament level at weekends, but none of these would exist without someone to organise them.

We are fortunate in Suffolk to have one of the finest tournaments in the country in the form of the annual Bury St Edmunds Congress, which next October will take place for the 32nd time.   Again, we have Bob Jones to thank for the high standard of playing conditions in this event.   The 2014 Bury Congress will be the sixteenth that Bob has organised and at this point, having run half of the Congresses held so far and seeing a certain symmetry in terms of 32 representing the number of pieces on the board at the start of a game and his 16 tournaments therefore, a 'full set', Bob has announced his intention to stand down and actually get the opportunity to play in this event again.

We should be grateful to Bob for taking over an already vibrant event and taking it to new heights.   Now is the time for a new team to come forward to continue the tradition of fine tournaments in Bury St Edmunds.   As I mentioned above, as a group, chess players are not the best at coming forward to help organise the game and the majority of the work always seems to be left in the hands of a small cohort of willing, and often unappreciated, volunteers.

I remember a few years ago at the Bury Club Annual Meeting, hearing in disbelief a player who was asked if he would take on the captaincy of his team for a year, answering, "Oh, no! I don't mind playing, but not captaining," as though he was actually doing the club a big favour by merely turning out to play for it!   Chess events at all levels need people to run them.   It is not exactly difficult or excessively time consuming, but it can be very rewarding.

So let me close with a request for volunteers for a new team to run the Bury Congress as well as to step into the posts of Suffolk County Chess Association Vice President, Junior Organiser, Competitions Secretary and First Team Captain.   The first two of these posts currently lie vacant and the other two will become free soon.   Without organisers there will be no chess, so please consider helping to run the sport that provides you with so much enjoyment.

Last Saturday 9-year old Anita Somton played in the English Girls Championships, held in Nottingham.   In the Under 10 section she faced 17 other hopefuls.

After winning her first two (rapidplay) games, she drew the third after running short of time.   She then won her least two games to finish on 4½/5.   In any normal five round event, such a score would be almost certain to win, or at least share first place, especially with such a small number of entrants.   But somehow, Susie Wang managed to sneak past her to score an unbeaten 5/5 to take the title of English Girls Champion.   It was especially annoying for Anita as she had beaten Susie in an Under 11 event in October.   In the last round Anita had managed to beat the current British Under 10 champion, Arushi Ramaiya.

This evening at the Bury St Edmunds Club, Anita faced former Suffolk Ladies Champion Vicky Allen in the Suffolk Ladies Championship.   This year there are only four entrants: Vicky, Anita, Emilia Jewell and Bethany Young.   Only two matches have been completed to date, with Emilia beating Bethany and, this evening, Anita and Vicky drew their match after a long struggle.

Last season's eight-board Suffolk correspondence team finished in mid-table after an excellent start.   Games that continued a long time tended to be lost for the Suffolk players.

This season, the following eight players form the Suffolk team:

Board 1:   Ian Wallis
Board 2:   Bob Jones
Board 3:   Silas Peck
Board 4:   Phil Revell
Board 5:   Kevin Greenacre
Board 6:   Jim Buis (captain)
Board 7:   Bob Stephens
Board 8:    Jakob Tulic

Each team member plays two games against the same opponent, as White and Black.   All games are played on the ICCF Chess Server.   Games can therefore be played quite quickly, provided both players respond promptly to the emails they receive when their opponents make a move. In days gone by, postal chess could last several years!

This year's event started on 1 November and although no Suffolk games have been completed yet, several look to be nearing completion (including mine!)

There will be an update on progress in the competition early in the New Year.

The Suffolk Under 160 team will be playing at the Turner Hall in Newmarket on Sunday.   The other teams in this EACU Championship are Cambridgeshire, Norfolk and Hertfordshire.

Although there are more than 30 players graded between 140 and 159, it has proved extremely difficult to find a full team of 16 players.   Nevertheless, we hope to be able to put on a good performance and to qualify for the National quarter/semi-finals.

The other dates for the Under 160s in 2014 are Sunday 26 January and Sunday 16 March.

A new film by Andrew Bujalski called “Computer Chess” is being shown at the Ipswich Film Theatre in the Corn Exchange on Tuesday, Wednesday and Thursday this week.   There's a two-minute trailer that you can watch.   The film's own website can be seen here.

The advertising spiel says, "In the early '80s a group of computer programmers gather in a hotel with the aim of winning a competition to design a programme that will beat a human at chess.   From a broadly comic beginning the film shifts imperceptibly into a genuinely profound, and surprisingly moving, philosophical musing on the relationship between man and machine.   Thoughtful, engaging, funny, this is a genuine surprise."

The film won a $20,000 award at the Sundance Film Festival, held in Utah, USA in January 2013.

Ted Matthewson says he's going to see it on Wednesday or Thursday, so we look forward to hearing about it.

Whilst December is traditionally a quiet time, with most leagues finishing mid-month, 2014 will bring a host of events to attract Suffolk players, both adults and juniors.

Here are some important dates:

Sat-Sun 11/12 January - 4NCL Rounds 3 & 4 (Hinckley and Daventry)

Sunday 26 January - Suffolk Under 160s (Newmarket)

Sunday 2 February - Suffolk First Team (Newmarket)

Sunday 9 February - Norfolk Rapidplay (Oulton Broad)

Sat-Sun 15/16 February - 4NCL Rounds 5 & 6 (Hinckley and Daventry)

Sunday 23 February - Bury Junior Congress (Bury St Edmunds)

Sunday 2 March - Suffolk Junior Open (Woodbridge School)

Saturday 15 March - Under 11 Zonals (venue tba)

Sat-Sun 22/23 March - 4NCL Rounds 7 & 8 (Hinckley and Daventry)

For more information about any of the above, email .